


An Unlikely Combination

by lealamalfoy



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Auror Partners, M/M, Marriage Counselling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-11
Updated: 2017-03-11
Packaged: 2018-10-02 18:52:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,260
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10224809
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lealamalfoy/pseuds/lealamalfoy
Summary: It was just a little bit of undercover work involving a corrupt marriage counsellor. Except, it was very hard for Harry and Draco to pretend to have been married three years and now going through a difficult period. That didn't mean that they didn't need the counselling, though.





	

**Author's Note:**

> this is based off [this tumblr post](http://adamantsteve.tumblr.com/post/150939186198/undercover-married-au-where-your-otp-have-to) so credit to them
> 
> also!!! if you're also a drarry writer, [apply to the drarrywritersnet](http://dracomalfoyl.tumblr.com/post/157996707610/im-back-again-making-another-net-so-basically)

* * *

“I can’t believe I’m doing this.” Draco muttered as he sat in the waiting room, Potter by his side. Potter didn’t look like Potter though, and Draco didn’t look like Draco. They were both disguised to look like Mr and Mr Brook-Porter, a couple currently going through some significant issues in their marriage.

“I’m not happy about this either.” Potter bit back, running his hand through his brown hair. He may look different, but he still had the same stupid mannerisms.

Draco seethed. “Next time you see Kingsley, tell him I don’t appreciate his  _ compliments. _ ” Kingsley had assigned this case to him and Potter because, and he quoted, Auror Malfoy and Auror Potter were the best in the business at undercover work. Now Draco was deeply regretting his need to prove himself and show that he was good too, because now, him and Potter were to have  _ marriage _ counselling together.

It wasn’t like Draco was against gay marriage, quite the opposite really, he was more against any gay marriage involving himself and Potter. From the ten minutes they’d been sitting in the waiting room, Draco was pitying anyone that would have the misfortune of marrying the idiot.

“Will you sit still?!” Draco finally snapped, raising his voice and balling his fists up. It wasn’t his fault for getting angry, as Potter’s constantly tapping and fidgeting and quiet humming was enough to send anyone crazy, and he was surprised it took himself this long to snap.

“I can’t help being nervous, Mal- Matthew.” Potter shifted in his seat again at the almost slip of their true identities. Draco was now doubting Potter’s ability of being discrete, and how he managed to also be one of the best undercover Aurors too. But Draco understood that this situation was enough to make anyone a  _ little _ on edge, imagine having to pretend to be in love with your school nemesis. 

On the other hand, that was the beauty of the case revolving around a marriage counsellor, because Draco could pretend to love him, yes, but he would also have an excuse to yell at Potter and name all of his faults. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad after all.

“Mr and Mr Brook-Porter?”

Both Draco and Potter looked up to see the marriage counsellor calling them for their appointment. The two men quickly stood up and followed the counsellor, a woman known as Vanessa Turner, although that might not be her real name if she was also in on the secret business here that the other counsellor was behind.

In pure Draco style, he didn’t wait for Potter to walk into the room first and instead carried on, however, so did Potter, ending in both of them slamming into each other and getting stuck in the doorway.

“Fuck’s sake.” Potter said through gritted teeth, stepping back so he could shove Draco into the room. No one shoved a Malfoy, so also in pure Draco style, he turned round and raised his fist as a threat. Potter smirked back.

“Gentlemen.” The counsellor, Turner, warned them. “Please, take a seat.” She motioned to the sofa opposite the armchair she was sitting herself down in.

Draco glared at Potter, and really wished he looked like Potter instead of this stupid brunette with hazel eyes. It took the fun out of irritating Potter when those green eyes didn’t glare back.

“Shall we start with introductions?” Turner asked once the two of them sat down.

“Matthew Brook.” Draco said the same time Potter had said “William Porter.” They both glared at each other and Draco even went to the extra mark of shuffling away from Potter, it was only a little distance on the sofa they were sat on, but it was the thought that counted.

“Blimey, I’ve got my work cut out for me.” Turner said under her breath before smiling at the two men. “Tell me why you’ve come here.”

“We got married three years ago, and things were going well but now…” Potter ended his sentence in a shrug.

Draco huffed. “We don’t want these three years to be a waste of time, so we, or I, at least, want to fight for this.” 

“Who said I didn’t want to fight for this?” Potter snapped back, fully in character.

“Your attitude does.”

Potter opened his mouth to say something back, but was stopped by Turner clearing her throat decisively. “Why don’t we start by you both telling me what it is about each other that you don’t like? Perhaps we should start on working to improve that. William, you go first.”

“He’s an arrogant git.” Potter started, Draco could already tell he wasn’t going to hold back. “Thinks he’s better than everyone else. Constantly making jabs about me, whether it being something I’ve done, my appearance or my personality.” Potter sat up significantly, and Draco knew what was coming. “ _ Oh look, here comes the almighty Gryffindor to save the day. Your hair looks like it doesn’t even know what a comb looks like. _ ”

“That’s just offensive.” One, Draco did not speak like that. Two, he’d think of far more imaginative insults than that.

“He knows how to get under my skin and will do whatever he takes to get a reaction out of me. The last time I checked, that was  _ not _ how normal functional relationships worked.”

Draco glared at Potter. It felt like Potter was implying that Draco wasn’t able to have functional relationships. Just because he’d been single for a while did not mean he was unable to be with someone. He was… finding the right person.

“What about you, Matthew?” Turner asked, looking up from the notes she had written.

Draco smirked. This was his opportunity to get back at Potter. “For starters, he has no pride in his personal appearance. From my background, it’s frowned upon to not make an effort.” Draco wanted to continue, he really did, but he had no words. For some reason, he couldn’t think of anything  _ bad _ about Potter. He’d spent years insulting him at any given moment, and now he couldn’t think of anything when he actually had to insult him.

Potter was now frowning at him, probably wondering why he wasn’t saying any more. Draco had to think fast. And so he did.

“Everyone loves him. It’s like everyone worships the ground he walks on and then treats me like a speck of dirt. I hate having to compete, but whenever he’s involved, I feel like I have to prove myself, to show that in reality, we’re the same. It’s horrible to have someone judge you before they even know you, but he gets the positive end of that. No one understands how  _ I _ feel.”

The room turned silent. Turner was watching them both like something was about to burst. Draco was staring forwards and trying to not notice Potter staring at him with those wide not-green eyes like Draco had announced to the world that he’s gay. In fact, this was probably the reaction he would get if he did announce that, but he wasn’t that insane.

Turner cleared her throat, causing Potter to look back to her and therefore, letting Draco relax a little.

“It seems to me-” She started as she put her pen down and leaning forward slightly. “-that there’s some jealousy issues.” Draco opened his mouth to snap back, because he was not jealous, but Turner raised her finger to stop him. “Jealously is a loose term. From what I can see, Matthew, you feel as if you’re not good enough, or no one else thinks you’re good enough, and you’ve bottled it up so much that you’ve taken it out on William.”

“I-” That was as far as Draco got before Turner looked at him pointedly. He felt like he was being scolded by his mother, for Merlin’s sake.

“William. Tell me about when you realised you loved Matthew. Help me remind him why you are with him.”

Potter shifted awkwardly in his seat again.  _ Stick to the story, _ Draco thought to himself as he waited for Potter to speak.

“We never did get along, always arguing about something. It wasn’t as if I didn’t know he was attractive, I mean, look at him.” Potter glanced at Draco briefly, and something inside of Draco told him Potter wasn’t talking about his disguised form. “It was when he was out drinking with his friends that I realised. My best friend had taken me to the pub they were coincidentally in. They hadn’t noticed us yet and I couldn’t help glancing over.” This definitely wasn’t the cover story they had planned. “One of his friends told a joke and he laughed, it was the first time I’d seen him laugh genuinely and everything seemed to click in my mind. I fancied the fuck out of him.”

Draco’s eyes widened. He remembered that night. He was out with Pansy, Blaise, Theo and Greg, all trying to cheer up and have fun for a change. Pansy and Blaise were arguing passive aggressively about something, Draco couldn’t even remember what it was about, but Greg had leaned over and whispered in his ear that they were like an old married couple, and that if they did get married, Draco could be the flower girl. 

It was a  _ had to be there _ moment, but with the mix of alcohol and Greg coming out with something like that out of the blue, Draco laughed, and he kept laughing. He couldn’t remember laughing like that for a long time, and it was good. That was until he’d noticed Potter staring and stopped the laughing abruptly.

“He noticed me staring, and it was so awkward. But he came over, all drunk and actually decent to be around. He brought me a drink and teased me about the recent promotion I’d gotten. The friend that was with me left, so it was me and him together. It was only for one drink but I started to notice the little things, like how his eyes seemed to scan every part of me before speaking, or how after a sip of his drink he’d lick his lips, or the way he’d do his classic smirk but so much kinder than I’d ever seen before.”

After that one drink, Draco returned to where his friends were sat and watched Potter for the rest of the evening. It wasn’t intended, but it just happened. Like at Hogwarts, he never meant to stare at Potter, or think about Potter, it was just a force of habit. A habit he never understood perhaps until now…

“I saw him at work the next day, and after that I started noticing more things about him and I felt myself falling. I didn’t care about what people thought of him because I know well enough that people can judge before knowing, or consider that people can change, but that night in that pub, I’d seen a side to him that I liked, and I continued to see sides to him that I liked.”

Potter, the insufferable prat, shifted in his seat  _ again  _ and awkwardly ran his fingers through his not-black hair.

“I need to go to the toilet.” Draco said suddenly, and without even waiting for directions, he got up and stormed out of the room. Leaning on the wall outside of the room, he closed his eyes and tried to regulate his breathing. He couldn’t believe Potter said all that. He should have stuck to the story.

“Are you okay?”

Draco snapped his eyes opened and pushed off of the wall, glaring at Potter. “Don’t talk to me.” He warned, taking a threatening step closer to Potter. “You go back in there, distract her, while I go look around, or have you completely forgot why we’re here?” He muttered, not wanting anyone to overhear their conversation.

Potter nodded, looking truly crushed, and turned back to return to the room. Draco really shouldn’t have done it, but he yanked Potter back by his elbow with so much force that the two of them were now nose to nose.

“I’ll be having serious words with you once this is over.” He let go of Potter’s elbow and pushed him back slightly, finding joy out of how he stumbled back. “Now go.” This time, Draco did let Potter return back to Turner, and hoped that Potter lived up to his image of being one of the best undercover Aurors, and kept Turner distracted.

Draco walked down the corridor, whispering the searching charms as he walked. Nothing came up on the charms, so he was forced to do things the old fashioned way. The first door he came across was the door to the toilets. Useless. The next door was a storeroom of past records. Potential for blackmail material, but not what he was looking for.

The third room he came across was the interesting one. It had a basic ward around that really didn’t take much to remove, and inside was an array of potion ingredients, a cauldron for the potion making and the finished potions. After quick inspection, Draco noted that they were all the illegal potions the Ministry had been tipped off about. Draco had assumed that in the room there’d be some form of money too, because the potions would be expensive and they must have somewhere they keep the money. Maybe the next room…

“Jesus fucking Christ!” Draco screamed before slamming the door shut again. He could not get the image out of his head. The other counsellor, the one the tip off was about, was naked and fucking a woman right on the desk, their clothes scattered around the room.

Draco wasn’t a prude, far from it, but he really didn’t need to see that much cock and that much vagina especially this early in the day. He could even feel his breakfast moving about, ready to come up if Draco continued to think about  _ that. _

“Would you mind making yourself decent before I arrest you?” Draco ordered through the closed door, deciding to wait ten more seconds before opening the door. This time, luckily, the culprits were both clothed and not fucking.

“You can’t arrest me for having sex!” The man complained as he pulled on his shirt while the woman sheepishly cowered in the corner as she clipped her bra back on.

“You’re right.” Draco wished there was a law against fucking in public, but it would take the fun out of everything. “But I can arrest you for being in possession of illegal potions.” Raising his wand, he cast another searching charm and yes - he walked over to the desk they were just fucking on, opened the drawer to see the money from the potion dealing, along with the records that Draco really didn’t look forward to going through.

“You told me you had stopped dealing!” The woman suddenly perked up, stomping over to the man, slapping him and then walked out of the room just as Potter and Turner turned up.

“Potter, you can take this pleasant gentleman for questioning.” In Draco’s mind, it was his way of punishing Potter for what he said earlier, and from the look on Potter’s not-face, he could tell that too.

Smirking to himself, he watched as Potter left with the man before slowly collecting all the money, documents and potions.

“It’s Malfoy, isn’t it?” Turner asked, her arms crossed and almost accusing. If she even tried to start something, Draco was prepared to pull rank and tell her to  _ fuck off _ . “I hope the tip off was useful.”

“It was you?” Draco asked, getting a nod back. “Why?”

“I think the correct words are  _ thank _ and  _ you. _ ” She replied smugly, examining her nails with a look that reminded Draco of Pansy. “For the tip off, and for helping you realise how madly in love Potter is with you.”

“He’s not-”

“He so is! And I’m trained to know these things!” Turner’s mouth curled upwards into a smirk. “You didn’t hear what he said after you left.”

Draco glared more. He hated not knowing, and now he was thinking of all the possibilities to what Potter had said. He couldn’t get Potter out of his head, even when he was filling up the case back at the Ministry. Draco had no idea why Potter would have said all those things, other than it being the truth but… Why would Potter, out of all people, like Draco? He could do better than the ex-Death Eater that practically everyone hated. Potter was the Chosen One, for fuck’s sake.

“I’ve finished.” Potter said quietly, clearly still crushed from Draco’s reaction earlier, and now that Potter was back in his own body, Draco could see how his eyes didn’t have the usual sparkle to them. Instead, they looked dull and glazed over, like he was about to cry.

“Potter. Come here.” Draco stood up and waited for Potter to slowly walk over, him not making eye contact with Draco at all. Draco continued to stare at his face, reading every part of it. He had never realised why it was so natural to read Potter’s face, or how he understood every single thing Potter did and the meaning behind it.

Maybe this was why Pansy and Blaise would always giggle together when Draco brought up Potter, the inside joke Draco never understood, or never wanted to understand. It would have been helpful if they’d pointed it out. He was fully aware that Potter was attractive, and he may fancy him a _ little _ ... 

Fuck. He fancied Potter a lot. There was no point denying it anymore. Potter was an inch away from Draco, and if Draco moved his head like  _ this -  _ Draco was kissing Potter. Potter was kissing back. Potter pulled Draco closer. Draco let him.

Draco’s heart couldn’t have gone any faster as he realised that this made sense. And it felt good. It felt fucking brilliant to have Potter’s lips against his own, warm and wet and full of desire.

Draco stepped back. Mainly to catch his breath and try to get his heartbeat to normal, but also, he didn’t want to go too far. He didn’t want to ruin it. It was so easy for Draco to ruin everything, and this just seemed to good to be true, the way Potter was looking up at him with those fucking green eyes and that mop of black hair that constantly looked like it’d been attacked by a numerous amount of wild birds. 

“How about-” Draco started, but it came out raspy. He cleared his throat and tried again. “How about you take me out for a drink?”

Potter blinked. “When?”

“Tonight, after work. The pub.” Draco said as assertively as he could, because this sounded like a  _ date _ .

“It’s a date.” Fuck, it was a date. Who knew that marriage counsellors were not only good at fixing relationships, but also creating relationships, seemingly impossible relationships, but positively magnificent relationships.

Potter kissed him again. It was brief, briefer than Draco would have liked, but it still left him speechless. He smiled genuinely at Potter, and watched as Potter’s cheeks grew red.

“Tonight.” Potter confirmed with a nod, before turning and going back to his work.

Draco watched him go, and his smile didn’t fade. “Tonight.” He repeated, sitting back down and completing his work, the smile still not fading. He was sure that tonight would be one of the best nights of his life, and Merlin, he was right.

* * *

 


End file.
